Who says I have nothing to do?
I was convinced myself for a while. But just because I don't have an official job, that doesn't make me a total bum or [insert non-edifying word].
This morning, I woke up and stared at my desk. Lo behold, work sits on my table.
Item 1 (left): This is half of my training material if I do get the sensory scientist position I'm pining for. I'm waiting for the other half to be printed. Additionally, I'm supposed to go through this website, Stat-Ease (http://www.statease.com/) to help work on my understanding of statistics and experimental design. Stats-Girl, here I come!
Item 2 (center): Ah the bliss of comic drawing. Alas, it's very difficult to find Christian friends who would be remotely interested in this. I've been given a hard time by some Christians who think all anime/manga is evil and "Give it up so you can serve God better." Yes, anime and manga has unsavory themes in them but shouldn't this more be a reason for Christian artists to provide alternatives? And besides, God can work in any avenue He so pleases (including rock music). To be fair, if one still believes I'm doing something wrong, you're more than welcomed to pray that God will open my eyes.
Item 3 (right): Let's learn Chinese! I have two motivations to learn this wonderfully complex language system. 1) To read my Taiwanese-translated comics (hahaha, no seriously...it's true) 2) To quit being called a "banana." Some Chinese in Malaysia are just darn cruel and arrogant. You are no greater than a fellow Chinese who can't speak Chinese. Finding delight and self-confidence in this fashion is very distasteful. I will never make fun of someone's lack of mastery over any language.
What else is Mave busy with?
Trying to figure out how a webportal works, that is. Psychoteers.com is moving towards a portal design, generously offered by Mambo (http://www.mamboserver.com/). I'm pretty excited to take up another level of website management, although it's going to take me time to play around with it first. While I most probably will never learn how to write programs, I think I'm contented with knowing how to use them.
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Initial D: The Movie
I've finally watched this movie that created a buzz in Asia a while back. I wasn't particularly fond of the original manga or anime since the art wasn't appealing to me and some have described the characters as having "goldfish lips" (hahahaha). Additionally, I'm not a car racing fan.
I confess that I itched to watch this movie, mostly because it had Jay Chou. That's right. I just wanted to see how Jay Chou acts.
It was more entertaining than I expected for a few reasons.
1) It was amusing how Takumi Fujiwara (Jay C) unsuspectingly learnt how to expertly speed by delivering tofu to his father's customers in the wee hours of morning. It wasn't even legal for the first few years. Heh.
2) The car racing scenes were cool. [Disclaimer: I know very little about car racing. That may explain why.] The screening of tires and the roaring of the engines added well to the excitement of the races. The concept of drifting and the speeds these daredevils were going at made me respect car racing to a higher degree.
3) Takeshi Nakazato (Shawn Yu) of the Night Kids team and Ryosuke Takashi (Edison Chen) of the Red Suns team were pretty cool rivals. The only rival that was frustratingly antagonistic was Kyoichi Sudo (Jordan Chan). Isn't it funny how we have Taiwanese actors playing the role of Japanese characters in this movie? Reminds me of the Memoirs of a Geisha.
In general, I was stuck to my seat everytime a race was started. XD I love the cast and general flow of the movie. There were only a few things that annoyed me: 1) Itsuki (Chapton To) acted very well....as the spoilt brat he's supposed to be. 2) The fact that Takumi's father beats his son whenever he's drunk 3) Natsuki (Anne Suzuki), Takumi's love interest was having some illicit relationship while dating Takumi.
Aiyaya. But as a whole, I enjoyed the movie. It got me thinking a little harder about car racing and what my friend's boyfriend does for a living. He specializes in creating racing cars like this ("engine specialist," I call him) and I must ask what he thought of this movie.
I never thought I'll say this: Hmm, car racing could be quite cool.
I've finally watched this movie that created a buzz in Asia a while back. I wasn't particularly fond of the original manga or anime since the art wasn't appealing to me and some have described the characters as having "goldfish lips" (hahahaha). Additionally, I'm not a car racing fan.
I confess that I itched to watch this movie, mostly because it had Jay Chou. That's right. I just wanted to see how Jay Chou acts.
It was more entertaining than I expected for a few reasons.
1) It was amusing how Takumi Fujiwara (Jay C) unsuspectingly learnt how to expertly speed by delivering tofu to his father's customers in the wee hours of morning. It wasn't even legal for the first few years. Heh.
2) The car racing scenes were cool. [Disclaimer: I know very little about car racing. That may explain why.] The screening of tires and the roaring of the engines added well to the excitement of the races. The concept of drifting and the speeds these daredevils were going at made me respect car racing to a higher degree.
3) Takeshi Nakazato (Shawn Yu) of the Night Kids team and Ryosuke Takashi (Edison Chen) of the Red Suns team were pretty cool rivals. The only rival that was frustratingly antagonistic was Kyoichi Sudo (Jordan Chan). Isn't it funny how we have Taiwanese actors playing the role of Japanese characters in this movie? Reminds me of the Memoirs of a Geisha.
In general, I was stuck to my seat everytime a race was started. XD I love the cast and general flow of the movie. There were only a few things that annoyed me: 1) Itsuki (Chapton To) acted very well....as the spoilt brat he's supposed to be. 2) The fact that Takumi's father beats his son whenever he's drunk 3) Natsuki (Anne Suzuki), Takumi's love interest was having some illicit relationship while dating Takumi.
Aiyaya. But as a whole, I enjoyed the movie. It got me thinking a little harder about car racing and what my friend's boyfriend does for a living. He specializes in creating racing cars like this ("engine specialist," I call him) and I must ask what he thought of this movie.
I never thought I'll say this: Hmm, car racing could be quite cool.
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Waiting for God to move I've been praying, wondering out loud to God.
"Why are you making me wait? You know, I can't make any commitments or schedule things. I have faith that you'll pull me out from it but I'm an impatient daughter. LOL "
Then, I heard "Dedicate these next 2 years to Christ" in my head.
Funny as it is, those words calm me down. Funnier it is how God tells me what to focus on, instead of giving me answers to uncertainties such as my relationship, career, and pseudo-ministry. What a mysterious God we have.
Friday, September 08, 2006
I love cross-cultural music collaborations, oh yes I do.
When Wang Lee Hom had L-Lim and Rain (both Korean) in the track "Wan Mei de Hu Dong" (Perfect Interaction), I was thrilled to hear a good mixture of American street slang, Mandarin and Korean.
So imagine when I stumbled upon SCANDAL, a collaboration effort between Vanness Wu (famous for being part of F4 in Meteor Garden) and Kangta (member of Korean band, H.O.T), I was pretty excited. I love how English, Korean and Mandarin are rojaked into the tracks, "Scandal" and "Good Vibration."
It's interesting to hear how some ppl frown upon this as some marketing scheme: Pull together two hot and popular representatives of 2 Asian markets - Taiwan and Korea, slap some R&B/Rap, give it a sexy title and make sure the two guys look hot and sexy. Of course, hot and sexy are subjective and are a matter of personal taste.
Anyway, did anyone seriously think that there was no yaoi marketing manuever when they casted Gackt and Hyde (two popular JRockers) together in the movie MoonChild? Or maybe I've been so corrupted by my past flings with yaoi that I can't help overreading hints that were never there in the first place? Arghhh.....gah. (>_<);;
Additionally, after watching the music video of SCANDAL, I also noticed the R&B/Rap themes (i.e. Sexy chicks dancing in the clubs, breaking the law, acting "tough and cool.") Is just me or is Asian popular music as a whole, headed towards becoming saturated with sex, obscenities, and cool crime as seen in U.S. popular music?
..............
Wait a minute, isn't this reflective of being "cross-cultural" in the first place? *laughs* I guess this is the price we pay for venturing into other cultures.
Ah well, for the record, I'm tempted to study the Korean language now, but I still have to deal with Mandarin first.
